Rio Tinto, diversified miner, and Aluminium head Jérôme Pécresse will combine the group’s lithium business with aluminium to form a new Aluminium & Lithium product group, as part of a restructuring that leaves three core lines: Aluminium & Lithium, Copper and Iron Ore. The shake-up, unveiled days after Simon Trott became CEO, also moves borates...
READ MOREKorea Zinc, nonferrous smelter, and Lockheed Martin, U.S. defense contractor, have signed a memorandum of understanding covering germanium supply and broader collaboration on critical-minerals supply chains. Under the deal, Korea Zinc will supply germanium refined in jurisdictions excluding China, North Korea, Iran and Russia via an offtake arrangement, while advancing plans to build a dedicated...
READ MOREMonash University, a research institution in Melbourne, has unveiled a process to recover all 17 rare earth elements (REEs) from coal fly ash, mine tailings and electronic waste with recovery rates above 90%, positioning waste streams as an immediate feedstock while new mines face long lead times and capital hurdles. The team says coal fly...
READ MOREMetallium, an e-waste metals recovery developer, and Flash Metals USA, its U.S. subsidiary, have advanced development of a Technology Campus in Chambers County, Texas that will host their first commercial Flash Joule Heating (FJH) plant, targeting commissioning in December 2025. The company reported proven performance on U.S.-sourced e-waste feedstocks—gold at 100% recovery from material grading...
READ MORENvidia, AI-chip maker, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, contract foundry, have doubled down on copper interconnects even as the industry touts silicon photonics, with chief executive Jensen Huang saying optical I/O remains “several years away” from broad deployment and that systems should “stay with copper for as long as we can.” The stance comes as Nvidia...
READ MOREHyundai Motor Group, automaker and EV battery developer, and Seoul National University, research partner, have advanced a solid-state battery architecture that enables copper to be used as the anode current collector in sulfide-electrolyte cells—long considered impractical due to corrosion—according to a newly published US patent application. The design layers a protective coating and carbon-based buffer...
READ MOREAllonnia, biotechnology developer, and Eagle Mine, US nickel producer owned by Lundin Mining, will deploy a D-Solve mobile unit at Eagle’s Michigan site in 4Q 2025 to remove magnesium and other deleterious elements from nickel concentrate, aiming to raise payable metal and cut smelter penalties in a live production environment. The on-site pilot is designed...
READ MOREBloombergNEF, energy-research firm, and Microsoft, cloud operator, have put hard numbers on the data-center pull on copper: BNEF estimates demand from the sector will average 400,000 t a year over the next decade, peaking at 572,000 t in 2028 and reaching a cumulative 4.3 Mt in use by 2035—layers of new consumption that could stretch...
READ MOREChina’s Ministry of Commerce, trade regulator, and the Ministry of Science and Technology, science policymaker, have immediately updated the Catalogue of Technologies Subject to Export Prohibitions and Restrictions, adding export-licensing requirements for upstream and midstream battery technologies—most notably LFP/LMFP cathode preparation and lithium chemical/refining processes—and revising controls on gallium extraction methods. The final amendment follows...
READ MOREWipro Infrastructure Engineering, industrial manufacturer, and Wipro Electronic Materials, its new PCB materials arm, have announced a ₹500 crore ($57.6 million) investment to set up a copper-clad laminate (CCL) and prepreg facility in Karnataka, targeting production start in 2026 and output of more than six million sheets a year. The unit is expected to create...
READ MOREApple, the California-based consumer-electronics group, and MP Materials, the Las Vegas-listed rare-earth miner and magnet producer, have struck a $500 million agreement to supply neodymium-iron-boron magnets for future iPhones, iPads and MacBooks from 2027. The venture—announced as Washington presses multinationals to “on-shore” strategic inputs—will centre on MP’s expanded plant in Fort Worth, Texas and a...
READ MOREBHP—the world’s biggest listed miner and a heavyweight in iron ore, copper and metallurgical coal—has struck memoranda of understanding with Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), China’s battery behemoth, and FinDreams Battery, the cell-making arm of EV giant BYD. Together they will develop battery-electric haul trucks, locomotives and on-site charging kits for BHP operations worldwide. The goal:...
READ MOREAurubis, Germany’s largest copper producer and Europe’s top recycler of complex metal scrap, is steering €1.7 billion ($1.89 billion) toward expansion. Chief financial officer Steffen Hoffmann—new in the role—says the programme, anchored by a €740 million recycling smelter in Richmond, Georgia, is aimed squarely at surging North-American appetite for critical metals. With a robust 56...
READ MORENornickel, Russia’s largest metals company and the world’s leading producer of refined nickel and palladium, has deployed QR code tracking technology at its Kola Mining and Metallurgical Company facility in Russia’s Murmansk region, enabling customers to access basic product information through mobile scanning. The system provides batch identification, weight data, and manufacturing details for the...
READ MORENth Cycle, a Boston-area technology company co-founded by MIT Associate Professor Desirée Plata, CEO Megan O’Connor, and Chief Scientist Chad Vecitis, has launched commercial operations at a facility in Fairfield, Ohio, producing mixed hydroxide precipitate containing nickel and cobalt from electronic waste and battery scrap. The company’s “electro-extraction” technology represents an attempt to challenge Chinese...
READ MORERio Tinto, a British-Australian multinational and the world’s second-largest metals and mining corporation, has signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding with Reed Advanced Materials, an Australian lithium technology developer, to validate the ELi Process that could reduce processing costs for converting lithium brines into battery-grade chemicals. The collaboration builds on successful pilot trials conducted at...
READ MOREToshiba, a Japanese electronics and industrial conglomerate, has begun delivering samples of its new rechargeable lithium-ion battery, the ‘SCiB Nb’, to manufacturers. Developed in partnership with Brazilian niobium producer CBMM and Japanese trading company Sojitz Corporation, the battery utilizes a niobium-titanium oxide (NTO) anode to deliver an estimated service life of 15,000 cycles and an...
READ MOREConstellium, a global aluminum products manufacturer, has entered a collaboration with Nikon Advanced Manufacturing, a digital manufacturing solutions company, and America Makes, a US public-private partnership for additive manufacturing, to broaden the use of its Aheadd CP1 aluminum alloy in the United States defense and aerospace sectors. The $2.1 million project is funded by the...
READ MOREHunan Zhongke Electric, one of China’s leading lithium-ion battery anode material suppliers, has committed to investing $1.1 billion (8 billion yuan) in a manufacturing facility at Oman’s Sohar Port and Freezone, marking the largest battery materials investment in the Middle East. The project will establish an integrated production base with annual capacity of 200,000 metric...
READ MOREResearchers at Freiberg University in Germany have developed a hydrogen-based direct reduction process for tin smelting that eliminates carbon emissions while achieving over 99% metal purity. The breakthrough technology uses 3 grams of hydrogen per 100 grams of cassiterite concentrate at 1,300°C, offering a low-carbon alternative to traditional carbon-based tin production methods that have dominated...
READ MOREEmirates Global Aluminium, the UAE’s largest industrial company outside the energy sector and the world’s biggest premium aluminum producer, has expanded its solar-powered aluminum supply agreement with Hyundai Mobis, South Korea’s automotive parts manufacturer. The expanded contract will nearly double annual deliveries of CelestiAL solar aluminum from 8,000 tonnes this year to 15,000 tonnes by...
READ MORENornickel, Russia’s largest metals company and the world’s leading producer of refined nickel and palladium, and Ecofes, a Russian water purification equipment manufacturer, have completed industrial testing of palladium-enhanced electrodes that reduce power consumption by 18.6% in sodium hypochlorite production for water treatment facilities. The first commercial installation of 560 palladium anodes is now operational...
READ MORESolus Advanced Materials, a South Korean copper foil manufacturer operating Europe’s only battery-grade copper foil production facility, and CATL, China’s largest battery manufacturer with 40% global market share, have entered a supply agreement for copper foil deliveries to CATL’s European battery manufacturing operations. The partnership will see Solus supplying copper foil produced at its Hungarian...
READ MORECodelco, the world’s largest copper producer, has partnered with engineering platform ennomotive to launch a global innovation challenge aimed at eliminating mineral dust emissions during transport. The initiative seeks practical, scalable solutions for agglomerating fine mineral dust generated during mining and handling, with the goal of achieving emissions-free transport and enabling the reuse of dust...
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